1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to infant garments. More particularly, the present invention relates to novel garments for swaddling an infant that are flexible, conveniently employed, and provides safety, comfort, and security to infants
2. Description of the Prior Art
By way of background swaddling refers to the longtime practice of wrapping infants tightly. Swaddling attempts to provide comfort and security to newborns by mimicking the environment of the womb that the infants experienced during the gestation period. Swaddling has been proven to promote restful sleep and security to infants. However, in spite of the longstanding practice of swaddling infants, there are limitations with current designs. For example, many current swaddling garments use Velcro® closures which lose their durability over time, and as infants grow stronger at two or three months of age, they stretch and the Velcro® closures pop open. Perhaps the most common method of swaddling infants involves wrapping infants in blankets of various designs, including four-sided receiving blankets. Swaddling with such blankets is limited in that they tend to unravel, especially when attempted by new parents who are not experienced with swaddling.
Over time, a wide variety of swaddling sleeper garments, infants wraps, pouches, buntings, and swaddling blankets have been proposed, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,940,224; 2,431,603; 2,521,609; 2,579,276; 6,817,048; D296,378; 6,393,612; D513,357; and 7,254,849. Antimicrobial fabrics are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,780,799 and 7,232,777.
While conventional use of receiving blankets and other swaddling garment designs are useful, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep infants tightly swaddled as the infants grow and are able to push with their arms or kick thereby freeing themselves or appendages from the garments or loosening the garments to a point where the swaddling function is useless or severely compromised.
There is a need for a means of overcoming the problems, limitations and disadvantages of known and conventional swaddling blankets and garments and maintaining tight swaddling garment functionality. Also, there is a need for multifunctional garments to provide swaddling and simultaneously provide either arm movement or leg movement.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved swaddling garment that imitates the physical environment of the womb.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a swaddling garment that is safe and easy to use.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a swaddling garment that is ergonomically designed.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention and equivalents thereof, are achieved by an ergonomically designed swaddling garment that is easily opened and closed for convenient use with infants.
Still another object of the invention is to provide garments providing swaddling in concert with either arm movement or leg movement.